Johnson being banned from Parliament could be the Moment of 2023

 The Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, has now been banned from entering the Houses of Parliament.

That means that I, a 16-year old politics enthusiast, but the second-longest serving Prime Minister of the 21st century can't.

To understand what happened we need to look at 2020, when the COVID pandemic hit and we were all confined to our houses for four-months.

Now when Johnson told us that we must stay indoors, nobody thought about Johnson and the government also following the rules. We just naturally assumed, passively, that they would (like you would expect the government to with any other law.) However, that cheese and wine event in the back garden of Downing Street was just the beginning.

The Backyard Cheese and Wine Event

Five days later, they were at it again with a '25 minute' back garden drinks event. Now, I want to be careful of my language but how stupid does the government have to be to send an email to each employee of Downing Street about a party, evidently breaching the rules...

Talk about leaving a trail.

A month later, the civil servants at the Prime Minister's office decided to have a farewell gathering for a private secretary. Surely a party on Zoom would have been a good idea? We all had to do it.

The following day, the Prime Minister had a birthday party where 30 people showed up to sing 'Happy Birthday' to the Prime Minister and 'ambush' him with cake. No 10 later claimed he was only there for 10 minutes. The police issued Fixed-Penalty Notices to Mr Johnson and his wife, Carrie, as well as current Prime Minister - Rishi Sunak. 

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak at the birthday gathering.

Now there is a bit of a gap. The next known party came on the 13th November when Johnson toasted the departure of Cummings.

Boris with his drink in hand

Drinks also happened on the 27th November.

Now to December... the government had parties on the 10th, 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th of December. The parties included the Departments of Education, Transport and the Cabinet Office hosting a Christmas Quiz.

The 18th of December is where the anger really starts to creep in for the people who had lost loved ones during the pandemic. The Daily Mirror reported a party taking place on this date, but this was denied by Downing Street. ITV News then obtained a video of the Prime Minister's then-Press Secretary Allegra Stratton joking about reports of an event, claiming it was a 'fictional party [that] was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.'

Stratton then resigned claiming she would 'regret the remarks for the rest of her days.' The police determined the event on that day breached the rules.

Another TWO parties happened on the evening of The Prince Philip's funeral. Johnson said he would attend the funeral to allow as many family members to attend as possible. Whilst Johnson was not at either of the parties, Downing Street officially apologised to Queen Elizabeth II for the parties.

Boris Johnson then proceeded to lie to Parliament and the electorate claiming that all the rules were followed. We knew he was lying and realistically, he dug a deeper hole for himself.

A former Primer Minister being banned from Parliament is something that has never seen before. Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg called it a 'kangaroo court' and then proceeded not to vote against the recommendation to ban Johnson from Parliament.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claims he is going to hold greater accountability to his staff, and then didn't vote on the recommendations and it comes to something when only one cabinet member, Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt, votes.

What remains left of Johnson's political career is unknown. Johnson is unlikely to ever stand as an MP again and won't be running for Mayor of London next year. However, his new role as a columnist for the Daily Mail is brilliant for him. Let's hope he doesn't get caught lying in print...

Greater accountability needs to be held for all MPs. The Prime Minister is, and always will be, 'First Among Equals.'